NYPS at Public Service Schools Invitational Chess Competition 2009
28-29 March 2009
Civil Service Club
[Once SCF will release the full tournament results, this report will be updated accordingly - Ed.]
If on 17-18 March more than a hundred NYPS students were present to play chess in the 61st NSICC held at the Civil Service Club, only 30 of them – the very best – returned to the same venue on 28 and 29 March. The Public Service Chess Competition 2009 was organized by Civil Service Club and Singapore Chess Federation and NYPS, unlike in the previous years, sent the maximum number of teams. In 2008, NYPS sent only 2 teams to this event (Boys U12 and Boys U10) and only one of them returned home with a gold medal: the boys playing in Under 12 won he top spot ahead of Northland Primary School. The U10 team finished second behind Henry Park Primary School. Notably, no NYPS girls’ teams were sent to play in 2008. This time around NYPS sent 6 teams to this competition, two teams (one of boys and one of girls) for each category: Open, Under 10 and Under 12. A selection process was run within the school for deciding the participating players. Some strategic decisions had to be taken especially for Girls U10 and Open categories. The NYPS boys’ teams for U12 and U10 and Girls U12 were solid enough to make a strong claim for the gold. The decision to send a team in Girls U10 category was taken with the scope of providing the promising players with a chance for tough over-the-board play and allow them to function as a team. Rachel Soh, one of the strongest players in NYPS, accepted to lead this team in the battle as their team captain although she could have easily played in the Girls U12 team. For this Rachel was rewarded with the Leadership through Mind Sports - NYPS Award 2009. In regard to the Open section, the NYPS teams (boys and girls) were in for a very tough fight against secondary schools. The prospects for medals in those categories were minimum at best but the prospects for gaining significant experience, building up a strong sense of resilience and cementing an authentic team spirit were much more important. On the Saturday of 28 March, qualifying matches took place in all categories. The time limit was 25 minutes per player and the scoring system was as follows: 3 pts for winning, 1 for drawing and 0 for losing. The finals would be held on Sunday with a time limit of just 15 minutes per player. Girls U10 (Qualifiers) There were 4 teams playing in this section: NYPS, Northland Primary School (NLP), Kheng Cheng School (KCS) and Singapore Chinese Girls’ School (SCGS). After a 3-round tournament only the top two teams would qualify in the finals. The NYPS team was formed by Rachel Soh, Chew Yun Ting, Ruth Poh, Krystal Soh and Shen Hongyi (reserve). Rachel Soh did everything possible to motivate the team but it wasn’t enough. The performance of the other three players should have been much better. Age, experience and frequency/depth of training has everything to do with it, but it’s also a matter of psychological readiness for an uphill battle and the necessity to build up a powerful mindset that allows these younger girls to remain strong even when defeated and persevere on their path to get better at the game. Eventually, NYPS finished 3rd in this section with 12 pts, the only match won being that against SCGS (not their strongest line-up in this event) and suffering a tough defeat at the hands of NLP (0-12). The latter won the top spot in qualifiers with a total of 6 match points, being seconded by KCS (4 match points). These two teams qualified in the Sunday’s finals. While NYPS will try its very best to put together a much stronger Girls U10 team for future events, this particular category remains a cause of worry mainly due to the limited base of selection available: very few gifted girls come from behind in this age category, while those who are already selected need some hands-on chess and psychological training to instill in them the iron will to provide any opponent with toughest opposition. Open U10 (Qualifiers) The NYPS story in this category was quite the opposite. There were 5 teams present: NYPS, NLP, KCS, Ngee Ann Primary School (NAPS), and Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Primary School (KCPPS). The NYPS players were Derek Lim, Nicholas Ang, Nathan Mar, Shannon Chan and Gerald Wong (reserve). A 4-round tournament took place and NYPS emerged as the undisputable winner of the qualifiers with a total of 44 pts and 8 match pts. Second was NLP with 34 pts and 6 match pts, followed on the 3rd place by KCS with 25 pts and 4 match pts. It is to be noted that the NYPS dominated all its opponents: won 10-1 against NLP, 10-1 against KCS, and defeated 12-0 NAPS and KCPPS.
While the top 3-boards in NYPS team were known as reliable and confident players, the presence of Shannon Chan and Gerald Wong (reserve) in the team were small experiments. Shannon did very well in keeping up the standards of his fellow players and Gerald – even if managed to play just a few games – showed a good fighting spirit. Both these players have a clear potential for growing into much stronger players in very short time. The top four teams (Nanyang, Northland, Kheng Cheng and Ngee Ann) qualified in the finals. Girls U12 (Qualifiers) Similar to the Open U10 category, here NYPS dominated too. The NYPS line-up (Yuan Wei Ting, Michelle Ho, Elizabeth Fam, Zhou Jiayi and Phyllis Poh – reserve) proved way too strong for the rest of 4 teams playing in the same field: KCS, SCGS, NLP, and KCPPS. NYPS qualified in the finals from the top position with 45 pts and 8 match pts, leaving behind KCS (33 pts and 6 match pts) and NLP (30 pts and 4 match pts). NYPS simply crushed its opponents in qualifiers: 12-0 against KCS, 12-0 against SCGS, 12-0 against KCPPS and 9-3 against NLP. The presence of Zhou Jiayi and Phyllis Poh in the team needs to be mentioned: they acquitted themselves well of the tough job of playing shoulder to shoulder with the school’s best chess players. Rachel Soh – stronger than both at this point – might have easily gotten a place in this team if she wasn’t needed to lead the Girls U10. With Rachel at one of the boards, this NYPS team seems a very tough nut to crack and the forthcoming Inter-School Team Championships will prove it. Only Nanyang and Kheng Cheng qualified in the finals. Open U12 (Qualifiers) Unlike with the rest of the categories discussed above, Open U12 saw a bigger number of teams and some real competition unfolding. NYPS played in the company of the following teams in qualifiers: NAPS, KCPPS, Nan Chiau Primary School (NCPS), KCS, NLP and Anglo Chinese School – Junior (ACS-Jr.). Evidently, the latter two were NYPS’ strongest rivals and NYPS players (Wu Muyu, Isaak Soh, Soo Kai Jie, Sean Toh and Wang Zi Jun – reserve) knew this very well. A 5-round tournament took shape and NYPS finished at the top with a total of 46 pts and 9 match pts. NLP finished 2nd with 38 pts and 6 match pts, while ACS-Jr. finished 3rd with 25 pts and 4 match pts. NYPS won 12-0 against KCS, drew 6-6 against NCPS, defeated ACS-Jr. with 9-3, won 7-4 against NLP and defeated NAPS with 12-0. All NYPS players in this category displayed an outstanding fighting spirit and even if the number of pts collected may indicate otherwise, some of the games were really close calls and it took a certain doze of toughness to score or maintain a score in tough conditions (time trouble and trying to recover from evident errors or blunders). The top 4 teams qualified in the finals: Nanyang, Northland, Anglo-Chinese Junior and Kheng Cheng. Open Girls (Qualifiers) The decision to send a NYPS team even in the Open Girls section was a tough one, too. It was expected that most if not all teams in this category will be secondary girls teams and our primary girls would have a tough time in keeping up. However, instead of keeping these girls home we decided to send them to play, experience how a team functions, gain more experience and get tougher as a chess player with an eye for future encounters. The NYPS team (Elizabeth Fam, Joanne Chan, Naomi Poh, Lim Xiao Hui and Natania Ng – reserve) did not disappoint. Quite the contrary, they took part in one of the hardest chess struggles of their lives. There were only 3 teams registered in this section: Raffles Girls School Secondary (RGSS), Crescent Girls School Secondary (CGSS) and Nanyang Primary School. After each team played each other, RGSS advanced in the finals, as expected, with no troubles whatsoever. NYPS and CGSS tied for the 2nd -3rd position. At this point a dramatic twist of events would basically deprive NYPS from a place in the finals and a guaranteed Silver medal. We don’t plan to spend too much time dissecting this controversial case but we offer the basic information below. As NYPS and CGSS tied, the chief-arbiter suggested to the teachers-in-charge of both teams to settle for a new tiebreak match between the two teams, and in case of another tie, then blitz games between leading players of each team would have decided. Negotiations took place regarding this tie and a serious misunderstanding marred it: prior to the start of the match NYPS asked if they can change the order of players, a question answered affirmatively by the chief-arbiter in the presence of the CGSS’ teacher-in-charge. Thus NYPS team switched the players of the top and second board (NYPS top player lost in the previous encounter with CGSS) and went to win the match 7-4. At that point, the Tournament Director (apparently unaware of chief-arbiter’s positive answer to the NYPS question about the permission to change players) stated that NYPS may be penalized due to the switch of players which is against Paragraph 4 of the Tournament Rules. Encouraged by this CGSS launched a written appeal and TD reverted shortly with the decision of an impromptu formed appeal committee (whose members were not present in the playing hall during the event and thus have not seen all documents/appeals): NYPS lost the match due to the switch of players and the same Paragraph 4 was claimed to sustain this argument. To cut a long story short, what followed was a series of NYPS protests based on the following: a) they had the acceptance of the chief-arbiter to change the players (most likely a misunderstanding between the two dialoguing sides); b) the Paragraph 4 was flawed; as it was published by the SCF website prior to the competition, NYPS would have won the match 4-3 even after being penalized according to the letter of the tournament rules claimed as grounds by both SCF officials in their decision and CGSS in their appeal! (the critical error was printed in Paragraph 4: “For each wrong placing in the team, a zero point shall be imposed on the team and one point [sic!] awarded to the opposing team”). Besides a great delay in actually stating the exact score with which NYPS lost the match (various numbers were given until up in the late evening), the TD treated the case in a very controversial manner to say the least. NYPS filed a 5-page letter of appeal to the SCF President late in the night, but even if the latter accepted that Paragraph 4 was printed wrongly in the Tournament Rules, he stated he cannot reverse the decision of the appeal committee. NYPS was kicked out from the finals and CGSS took their place. Even before the fateful tiebreak match came to a conclusion, NYPS tried to talk and reach a compromise with CGSS’ teacher-in-charge by proposing a second blitz-match tiebreaker regardless of the result of the ongoing match. But CGSS preferred to avoid playing chess and filed the appeal hoping to go in the finals based on a technicality. When asked to consider the moral and sportive values behind their decision (especially with the overall conditions summarized above), the CGSS teacher responded to the NYPS proposal for a blitz match by saying that Crescent girls did not train for blitz (even if this form of chess is often used in tiebreak matches and the skills exhibited at it are exceedingly necessary in playing rapid chess). Apparently they did not train for rapid chess either: in the finals against Raffles Girls Secondary Schools, CGSS scored an incredulous 0-48, failing to win or draw even one game. Obviously, there are more important things out there than winning a chess game. We feel that exactly here CGSS could have passed on a better message when encountering our much smaller NYPS girls. The NYPS girls in this team (as well as the school teachers) learned a hard lesson about tournament rules, but also witnessed the controversial decision-making that took place. All these have little importance in the long-run, but NYPS remains committed to struggle for better playing conditions and fairness in treatment in every tournament its teams take part home or abroad. All members of this team were commended by the school for their resilience with a special trophy: Most Resilient Player – Chess Award 2009. Browsing through the photo gallery, one gets a good sense of how these girls bonded as a team even in most adverse conditions. Participating in a team event means more than going there to bring home a trophy. It means going and coming back together, defending the good values this sport promotes, working together as a team both when victorious or defeated, remaining competitive but fair-play and gracious, and supporting your own people against all odds. From this perspective, NYPS girls in this category (surrounded by the much taller secondary school girls) were the true winners not only by the general score of 7-4 in actual play, but by the higher values they defended during this mini-ordeal that affected their Saturday afternoon. Open Boys (Qualifiers) The NYPS boy’s team that fought in the Open section needs to be commended as well: Gerald Chan, Liu Mutian, Jonathan Cheong, Ace Tay and Atticus Tay (reserve), all understood very well they don’t stand a chance to qualify in the finals considering the presence of some really strong Secondary school teams in this section (such as Raffles Institution, ACS Independent, St. Joseph’s Institution, and others). But they played on with a remarkable sense of pride for representing the only primary school in this section. Furthermore, the NYPS team provided no shortage of trouble for all these secondary teams and when defeated some of the weaker teams, NYPS players received open applauses in the playing hall. During the last round in qualifiers against Raffles Institution, NYPS board 3 and 4 played good chess, Ace Tay missing a draw against FM Dominic Lo (Elo 2146) and Atticus Tay missing a clear win against Shen Chen-Qi (Elo 2188). NYPS did not qualify in the finals but scored a very decent result: 32 pts in a field of stronger players than themselves. All team players (especially Gerald Chan and Atticus Tay) deserve special recognition for their play and excellent attitude during the event. The FinalsOn Sunday, 29 March, the finals took place. They were double round-robin with 15 minutes per player. In the girls category, the top two teams disputing the finals played a Scheveningen Match of 4 rounds. In the boys categories, the fight was between NYPS, NLP and KCS. In Open U10, the NYPS team won the Gold medal collecting an overall of 61 pts. Second was Northland with 42 pts, followed by Kheng Cheng with 28 pts. In Open U12, the fight was much closer: NYPS team won the Gold with 45 pts, followed by Northland with 41 pts and Kheng Cheng with 27 pts. In Girls U12 category, the NYPS team disputed 4 matches against Kheng Cheng Primary School scoring 39-9 thus winning the Gold as well. In Girls U10 it cannot go unnoticed that NLP was beaten in the final by the girls of Kheng Cheng with the overall score of 29-19. KCS teams seem definitely stronger than in the previous years and it would be interesting to see how things will evolve in the next months for these young players. Public Service TourneyThe event also comprised the traditional Public Service tournament that gathered 19 teams from various ministries or governmental institutions. After 5 rounds, the winners were the Ministry of Health (Team 1) with 9 match pts, followed by Ministry of Education (Team 1 – with our NYPS staff Olimpiu G. Urcan playing on the team) with 8 match pts, and Ministry of Health (Team 2) with 6 match pts. Thus the traditional duel between Ministry of Health (captained by the strong IM Hsu Li Yang) and Ministry of Education was once again won by the former even if at only half of point distance (MOH – 16 pts, MOE – 15.5 pts). Prizes
Open U12 (Gold Medal)
1. Wu Muyu (Captain)
2. Isaak Soh
3. Soo Kai Jie
4. Sean Toh
5. Wang Zi Jun (Reserve)
Open U10 (Gold Medal)
1. Derek Lim (Captain)
2. Nicholas Ang
3. Nathan Mar
4. Shannon Chan
5. Gerald Wong (Reserve)
Girls U12 (Gold Medal)
1. Yuan Wei Ting (Captain)
2. Michelle Ho
3. Victoria Fam
4. Zhao Jiayi
5. Phyllis Poh (Reserve)
Other special awards given by the NYPS Chess Club based on the decision of the teachers-in-charge for the excellent fighting & team spirit displayed during the Public Service Chess Competition
Most Resilient Player - Chess Award 2009
Elizabeth Fam
Joanne Chan
Naomi Poh
Lim Xiao Hui
Natania Ng
Leadership through Mindsports - NYPS Award 2009
Rachel Soh
Full results (forthcoming...)
Acknowledgements: NYPS wishes to thank the parent volunteers who assisted the teams during this event. Their generous assistance keeps us motivated. Our thanks go also to the Intchess trainers for their training sessions given to our players prior to the event.
